And they're leaving the Pit.. no disasters yet! Maybe the date will go perfectly smoothly, with no issues! It could happen... really! It COULD! Not likely maybe...
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The two of them moved up in the Pit's lift system headed to ground level. Her hand squeezed lightly on his arm and he felt rather warm all over. "You really do look really good."
"So do you." Her easy relaxed smile made him feel good. She looked him over a little as they rode the lifts up to the motorpool. "Scarlett was right.. those pants do make your ass look great."
"Good gawd.. you women are.. you're just... never mind." He tried to relax and ignore the heat on his face. "Ya'll are shameless. I didn't go making no comments on your behind in that dress, did I?"
"Yes, I'm a little disappointed to tell the truth." His head swiveled to stare at her and only relaxed once he saw the teasing spark in her eyes. "I know.. you're such a gentleman. You do remember what I said on the road trip, right?"
He cleared his throat. "Yeah.. I remember." He studiously stared at the walls going past rather than in her direction. Puffing out a soft sigh of relief, he motioned for her to precede him off the lift. The wolf whistles that erupted from the motorpool's workers were abruptly silenced when he stepped out after her. He could almost hear the nervous swallows. "I know I didn't just hear ya'll harassing a lady. Did I?"
"No Sergeant major!" came the chorus. He saw several of the braver ones still sneaking looks at the long shapely legs as CoverGirl walked across the garage area with complete poise and confidence. Clutch went as far as letting out a long sigh as he watched. Of course, Clutch was safely across most of the motorpool floor out of direct range of anything but a thrown weapon or a bullet. Beach settled for throwing a few glares and made a mental note of exactly how many laps the grease monkey would have added to his routine when Beach ran PT next.
Lengthening his stride, Beach reached the SUV just before she did and opened the driver's door. "You're gonna wanna drive, I assume?" She smiled and settled into the driver's seat, tossing her purse onto the floor. Beach glanced to make sure her skirt was inside, saw a great deal of exposed thigh skin again and swallowed before he closed the door quietly. He cursed at himself the entire walk around to the passenger side. Just as he opened the door, he distinctly heard Clutch's voice as he spoke overly loud to the others in the motorpool.
Clutch sneered just a little bit. "At least we know who's in the driver's seat of that relationship, hey boys?" Most of the guys seemed to hover between snickering and planning an escape, while keeping a wary eye on the Ranger who had paused to look over at the mechanic.
Beach's easy drawl sounded as if he was as calm as flat water. "It's astoundin' how danged jealous ya sound, Clutch. Ain't no reason to be all jealous like though, ain't like ya ever hadda shot at her, no how." Clutch's face went dark and Beach settled into the passenger seat and closed the door. He gave her a warning look. "Alright.. try not to make me scream on the drive? Duke said I ain't allowed to get in no kind of trouble."
She smirked and put the vehicle in reverse. "Relax Ranger man. I got your back." She slammed the gas pedal and slung the SUV out of the large motorpool doors, twirling the steering wheel with ease to swing them around and slapping the brakes to stop them in precisely the exact spot to head down the access road. "Let's get outa here." Before he could do more than grit his teeth, she let the clutch go and punched the gas hard. Gravel spun up from the tires as they sped off.
"Gawd help me.." BeachHead tried to keep a grip on the dashboard as they took the curves at thirty miles an hour over the sedate speed limit on base. "Watch the stop sign!"
They slid to a stop and she turned a bland expression on him. "You're just such a grandma when it comes to cars, Beach. Loosen up, don't you trust me?"
He leveled a 'you're kidding' look on her. "Who wrecked a APC into the only ditch in a ten mile radius? In reverse no less?"
"Shut up. You ran over a Corvette with a tank." She hit the gas again.
"Yeah.. but they were in my way.. I gave 'em plenty of time to move." Beach clenched his jaw as they squeaked under a yellow light.
She smiled to herself, swung the vehicle into the wrong lane to pass a slower jeep. She enjoyed the way Beach tensed up before she swung back into her lane just before oncoming trucks would be a threat. "Calm down, Beach. I'm not going to get us killed before you buy me dinner."
"Good to know, Barbie.. how about you ease off the gas pedal so I won't swallow my tongue before dinner? It'll kill my appetite." Despite his words, she noticed he wasn't nearly as nervous as he normally was, so perhaps he was actually getting used to riding passenger with her.
"Nothing kills your appetite, Sergeant Hardass. You'd set your table on a week-dead horse and eat without a twitch." She slowed slightly as she approached the front gate.
"Week-dead horse ain't gonna kill me.. yer drivin' on the other hand might just. Stop at the gate.. stop.. stop!" Beach let out a grateful breath as she stopped at the feet of the MP.
Order barked a few times and jumped up on the driver's door. CoverGirl rolled the window down and petted the german shepard. Law leaned slightly to peer in. "Afternoon. Headed out? Got your passes?" Beach held up his and CoverGirl took a second to dig hers out of her purse. Law nodded and smiled. "You look nice, Corporal."
"Thanks!" She smiled prettily back at him. "Open the gate, I gotta powerful need for speed!"
Beach grunted to himself. "Keep it closed.. keep it closed.. awww heck." The gate swung open and the SUV left rubber on the road as she took off. "Girl.. don't get us arrested.."
"Calm down.. we have five miles before I have to worry about the speed limits." She reached to tuck a strand of hair behind her ear. "I should have put my hair up nice."
"It looks nice to me." Beach gazed at her for a few seconds. "I mean.. down, it looks nice. Very.. shiny."
Her lips twitched but she kept from laughing. "Thank you Beach."
He nodded and glanced at her legs rather involuntarily. His eyes fixed on her knee for a moment and then he looked out across the dash, clearing his throat. "I uhh.. didn't think you'd dress up so much."
"Well.. it's just a dress and a little makeup." She felt herself blush though. "What did you expect?"
"I dunno." His glance dropped down again and she could see the effort as he dragged them up again to look at her. "I ain't never seen you wear.. pantyhose.." He cleared his throat. "Well.. that one time you was in dress greens.. but.. I wasn't noticin' yer legs then."
She sighed. "Yeah well... I like girly clothing once in a while." She smiled. "Besides.. I'm not wearing pantyhose. I'm wearing stockings." The look she cut his way said something naughty to him, but sadly he wasn't aware of what it was. He could either pretend he understood, or suck it up and ask. He didn't want to ask, it would make him look even more inexperienced and stupid and she would make fun of him.
"What's the difference?" Beach cursed to himself silently.
The naughty glance returned. "Stockings don't go all the way up.. you have to wear a garter belt with them." She saw his breathing go a bit shallow. "You do know what a garter belt is, right? It's one of those lacy little.."
"Ah know whut a gartuh belt is." He cleared his throat. "Ya ain't gotta describe it. I understand." He shifted uncomfortably. "I get it."
She smiled in a saucy manner. "Really? Are you picturing me in a garter belt? Because it's black... and lacy.. and.."
He closed his eyes. "No.. of course Ah'm not." He took a very deep breath and opened his eyes. "How far is the restaurant?"
"Are you changing the subject?"
"Yes, dang it.. I'm tryin' to change the subject." A heavy breath puffed out. "You ain't gotta embarrass me the whole evenin', you know."
"Okay... yes, we're near the restaurant. Have you eaten here before? It's nice." She smirked just a bit at how extremely uncomfortable she'd made him.
"I think once a long while back. It was some sorta meeting Hawk had with a colonel, wanted me along to glower at the pogue's bodyguard." She snorted out a laugh. "It's true, he told me to glare at him and make certain he didn't get too uppity at him."
"I'll bet he was on his best behavior." She shook her hair back some as they reached the main strip and she slowed the vehicle to watch for good parking spots.
Beach snorted. "Yeah, he never even touched his butter knife and I don't think he made eye contact with Hawk even once. Hawk said I was very effective. Us semi-literate knuckle-draggers have our uses." He watched out the window at the civilians as they circled the area slowly.
"I said I was sorry I called you that." She sighed at him.
He grinned. "Yeah well, I repeated it to Hawk and he got a kick outa it. Said he could always use more of us grunts for his brute squads." She chuckled and he continued. "Apparently some of the more civilized generals considered me a throw-back to the old Army grunts."
She shook her head, grinning at him. "Hawk takes me along as his assistant because I look harmless but he knows that I can take care of myself."
"Good choice." Beach nodded at an open parking spot. "If you don't mind walkin' a few blocks, there's a space." She pulled in and parked. The Ranger got out and held her door to let her get out, making her get all flustered. "I keep tellin' ya, I got manners."
"Well yes.. you just don't normally show them. I'm really more used to you shouting at me and calling me a 'maggot' or something." She shook her skirt out and brushed at it a little. "It's a little odd to have you holding doors and being all nice."
He offered his arm to her and smiled. "Well, I can call you a maggot if'n it'll make you feel better." She made a face at him. "Didn't your momma never tell you not to make faces or your face would stick that way?"
"No, my mother told me that making faces would cause crows feet and ruin my face and I'd never get a good contract." She rolled her eyes at the memory. "Everything was about how I looked and getting a shot at a modeling career."
"Well, it seemed to have worked, you were a model, right?" He saw her expression change to a bland uncaring mask. "Didn't you like being a model? I mean.. that's what you did."
"Well.. at first." She sighed and used one hand to fluff her hair a bit before returning it to his arm. "It was kind of flattering to have people all fussing over you, and giving you clothes to put on, and doing your hair and makeup... but then it's also when the directors all start hounding you about whether you put on two ounces of fat. It's when photographers start 'suggesting' that wearing less clothing would boost your portfolio. It's when catty remarks are the norm from your fellow models. It's not much fun."
He scowled. "Don't sound like nothin' you'd go puttin' up with."
"Well, Mom pushed me pretty hard to keep up with it. So it was constantly 'should you be eating that' and 'don't squint' and 'no you can't go out with your friends'." She sighed and wrapped her arm around his further and sort of hugged his arm a little. "It got more and more miserable. Every year it became more of the 'you're not getting younger' and that I had to make the big break right now or I'd be passed by for younger girls."
She could almost hear him thinking before he looked down at her. "No offense, but yer momma is a bit odd in the head, ain't she? I mean, putting her girl through a buncha junk like that just so you could do something you didn't wanna do in the first place?" He shook his head. "Don't make a lotta sense."
CoverGirl snugged in a little closer. "No it doesn't. But about then is when I decided I wanted to be part of something important and better and challenging." She smiled at him. "That's when I joined up with the Army, and opted for the mechanics school right out of Basic. Mom was scandalized. I don't think she'll ever quite forgive me for all this. But I certainly don't regret it one bit."
He nodded. "I'm glad you decided on the Army. Otherwise I'd never have met you." His shoulders bunched and relaxed as he shrugged around inside his shirt and she gave him a questioning look. "Not used to these civie clothes."
She shook her head, smiling at his unease. "Well you look very nice."
"Thank you." He waited for a smart alack remark to follow, surprised when she didn't say anything further. They arrived at the restaurant and he ushered her inside.
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End chapter
Well, they made it to their restaurant. I hope you're still enjoying and thank you so much for reading! Please feel free to review or PM any comments or questions. Thanks! Part 3 will be coming up soon!